By Retail Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
Customers expect hassle-free returns, and businesses are scrambling to make the process smoother, faster, and cheaper. Whether it’s returns, repairs, recycling, or resale, reverse logistics is what happens when products move not from manufacturer to warehouse to store to customer, but the reverse. It’s all the machinations that take place behind the scenes after a product leaves the shelf, and then makes its way back. Each of these products needs to be inspected, repackaged, refurbished, or trashed, and each step takes time and costs money.
Origins of reverse logistics
In the early 1900s, catalog giants like Sears & Roebuck offered return policies. They were slow and via rail, but they existed. Fast forward to the e-commerce boom of the 2000s, and managing the flow of goods backward through the supply chain became essential. Amazon normalized free returns, and consumers got used to buying three sizes and returning two. With sustainability now a selling point, brands are investing in systems to turn returns into revenue, from refurbs to resale and recycling via return portals, resale marketplaces, and reverse logistics as a service startups.
Reverse logistics in context
“Now Poshmark, the resale marketplace, and Loop, the commerce platform focused on reverse logistics like returns and exchanges, have joined forces to help turn customers’ return failures into resale triumphs.”
“More than 1 in 3 retailers (34%) hire seasonal staff to help process returns, while 40% hire third-party reverse logistics providers to do so.”
